When Bobby ‘King’ Green steps into UFC Fight Night 268 on February 28 to face Daniel Zellhuber, the cameras will catch more than his elite footwork and timing. They’ll catch a walking archive. Green doesn’t treat tattoos like decoration. He treats them like chapters. Each piece marks a phase, a belief, or a choice he made while growing up in Southern California and grinding through the fight game.

So before the cage door shuts in Mexico City, it’s worth asking: what do the symbols on his body actually say about the man behind the nickname?

What is the meaning of Bobby ‘King’ Green’s back and chest tattoos?

Green’s back is anchored by the word “King”, inked large enough that you can read it from the nosebleeds. The placement isn’t subtle, and that’s the point. The name isn’t a gimmick. He legally became King Green in 2024, and the back tattoo possibly predates that paperwork.

There’s also a dense cluster of imagery across his middle back: a wooden cross bound with rope, wings spreading from it, and a halo edged with flames. Green has explained this piece as personal and layered, as it embodies faith mixed with struggle. The cross and wings point back to his Christian roots.

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Move around to his chest, and the tone shifts again. On one pec sits what looks like a Statue of Liberty crying tears of blood, a heavy image that reads like disillusionment with the American promise. The other side carries a lion, a classic emblem of pride and survival. Those are the loudest pieces. But the quieter ones say just as much.

Are there any other tattoos on King Green’s body?

Green’s tattoo story starts young. His first piece came at 17, a tribal cross on his left bicep. But he described it perfectly in a 2024 interview for ESPN MMA with Anthony Smith.

“And the first one I got is what we call a tribal cross. Right here (Left arm, bicep),” King Green said. “And so I’m Christian, so it was like a cross for me. I thought, hey, I’m doing something for God, and I don’t have to feel so bad. Like, hey, I’m being, I’m making a sin, but at least it’s for God, you know? So it’s a tribal cross.”

Wrapped around his other arm is a band that looks like a tribal pattern at first glance, but it actually spells “Green” all the way around. He wanted something that nodded to the trend without copying it. But one of Green’s most striking choices sits on his head: a large dragon tattoo across his scalp.

So, what’s the story behind it? In the interview, the UFC lightweight explained that after years of bleaching, dyeing, and damaging his hair as a teenager, Green started losing it in his early twenties. Rather than hide that, he leaned into it. The dragon became his answer to thinning hair and a way to carve out his own lane visually in a sport full of lookalikes. The piece took multiple long sessions, which tracks with Green’s approach to most things: commit fully or don’t start.

Beyond that, there are names along his collarbones of possibly people who matter to him, plus flames climbing up his obliques. He hasn’t publicly unpacked the meaning of those flames, but given the rest of his body art, they likely point back to something significant. This isn’t an exhaustive list of Bobby ‘King’ Green’s collection of body art at all, but it does paint a clearer picture of the fighter.